Lee Suk-joon nominated to be NongHyup Financial Group chairman

Lee Suk-joon [YONHAP]

A committee at NongHyup Financial Group selected Lee Suk-joon to become chairman and CEO of the company.

If the recommendation is approved by the board and shareholders in December, Lee, 63, will serve in the roles starting in January. He will serve for two years.

The recommendation was unanimous and only Lee was recommended, according to NongHyup in its announcement on Monday.

Lee is a former chief of government policy coordination working under the prime minister from 2016 through 2017.

In the role, he assisted the prime minister.

Lee was also vice minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT in 2014 and currently serves as an advisor to Shin & Kim and a chairman at the Seoul Scholarship Foundation.

Lee’s understanding of a diverse range of sectors, from finance to real estate, and experience in the real economy were key to his nomination, according to NongHyup in a statement. It added a person who is able to plan out 10 years for the NongHyup Financial Group was needed in the “uncertain financial environment.”

Born in 1959, Lee majored in economics at Seoul National University and studied the same subject at Chung-Ang University’s graduate school. Lee also completed MBA at the MIT.

A committee at Shinhan Financial Group selected Jin Ok-dong, CEO of Shinhan Bank, to become chairman of the company last week.

The term for Woori Financial Group Chairman Son Tae-seung is scheduled to end in mid-March.

Son was sanctioned by the Financial Services Commission in November for improper sales of funds when he was the head of Woori Bank in 2019.

The sanction bars Son from holding positions at financial companies for three years, though current terms can be completed.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]